British children’s fitness levels 'falling twice as fast as international average'

The fitness levels of British children are falling twice as fast as the global
average despite the Government spending more than £1.5 billion to encourage
them to become more active, a new study shows.

Youngsters in Britain today are significantly less fit than they were a decade ago – with their increasingly sedentary lifestyles to blame, according to the research.

Children’s fitness in the UK has declined by eight per cent, compared to an average of only four per cent for the rest of the world.

The researchers described the fall as "large and worrying" and warned that the Government’s focus on children’s weight could have led to serious fitness problems being overlooked.

Their study – published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood journal – will fuel concerns about the selling-off of school playing fields under Labour and the health consequences for the so-called "PlayStation generation".

Critics accused the Government of presiding over the decline of school sports and said the recent investment of billions of pounds to encourage them to become more active was clearly not working.

Fewer than one in three children now play competitive sport and activities like yoga and circus skills are increasingly taking over school PE lessons, official figures show.

Around 2,000 school playing fields have also been sold off since Labour came to power in 1997, with another 15 estimated to be lost every month.

The latest study found British boys were nine per cent less fit than they were 10 years ago – with girls’ fitness having declined by seven per cent.

The researchers used ‘shuttle runs’ to test the children’s cardiovascular fitness – usually defined as how efficiently the heart, lungs and other parts of the body deliver oxygen to muscle tissue to aid endurance and prolong physical activity.

They tested 300 10-year-old schoolchildren in 1998 and another 300 in 2008 – and said even slim children were significantly less fit.

They also warned that falling activity levels could be even worse for children’s health than being heavily overweight and said schools should monitor not just size and weight, but fitness.

Dr Gavin Sandercock, from the Centre for Sports and Exercise Science at the University of Essex, who carried out the research in an affluent area in Chelmsford, said "less active" lifestyles were to blame for the decline.

"Children are not doing as much physical activities as before. They are using their spare time to play more computer games, more time watching TV, or more time online.

"They don’t climb trees any more, they don’t use their bikes any more.

"I read last week that Britain is highly up-to-date with technology, with more computers-per-household than anywhere else in Europe – but that means our kids are playing more computers. The drop in fitness is very, very large."

He added that recent studies suggested children could be spending up to one quarter of their waking lives in front of a television or computer screen.

In 1998, no national strategy was in place for school sports, with schools left to decide how much exercise to provide.

However, since 2002 the Government has spent more than more than £1.5 billion on schemes to encourage sports in schools.

They have also invested £75 million in the flagship Change For Life programme designed to encourage healthier, more active lifestyles, which is particularly targeted at children. But opposition politicians said the money had clearly failed to address the problems.

Mike Penning, the shadow health minister, said: "While many are rightly concerned about the future health of the nation as measured by levels of childhood obesity, this is not the only indicator of children’s health.

"These figures confirm that children’s fitness is falling at an alarming rate – reflecting the Government’s continued failure to support families in maintaining healthy, active lifestyles through regular exercise."